Boris Yeltsin, that beacon of hedonistic governance, passed away this week, taking with him the decadent lawlessness he fostered during the "Wild East" period of the nineties. I can't say I'm too sad about it. Under Yeltsin, rampant capitalism unseen in Europe until then took hold, allowing former Communist Party members, ex-KGB agents and gravy train riders to pillage the country of its natural resources and set up vast commercial enterprises which led to the rise of the oligarchs and their own rule of law.
Vladimir Putin has the right idea, trying to rein them in, but their walled-off tax havens outside Moscow mean they have made themselves virtually untouchable. Changes in the law and imaginative criminalisation have dampened the Yeltsin-era grab for cash, only to be replaced with draconian limits on freedom. When I was in Russia in the early nineties, there were a lot of bandits roaming free, ripping the poor off, making a grab for anything they could, and it worked well. Some of these have ended up painting their living rooms gold and thinking nothing of buying multinational companies as "playthings". They rent whole hotels in the Mediterranean so they don't have to mix with ordinary tourists. They shamelessly buy works of art for double the price to outbid any rivals. They know no compassion. They evacuate whole tower blocks on land they've bought to redevelop, ejecting families onto the streets with 24 hours' notice. These "people" have no upbringing. To put it bluntly, all the money in the world doesn't buy class. They'll still be the children and grandchildren of the Communist proletariat.
To think European and North American shareholders and owners let them purchase whatever they want just shows us what sort of people run our world. How did this all start? Boris Yeltsin made the biggest mistake in Russian history by freeing up the markets overnight, permitting everyone to have a share in Russia's wealth. Most Russians, finding themselves on the poverty line, did nothing more than sell their shares to the aggressive and persuasive New Russian entrepreneurs to feed their families. Result? A very small, elite pack of all-powerful, blood-sucking, unethical monsters who keep all the money while Russians continue to starve.
Vladimir Putin has remained popular during his term as President because ordinary people put their own needs over civil liberties. Russians have never known true freedom in the European sense, and thus know no different, but many are happy that Yeltsin's successor didn't allow their desolate situation to get even more extreme. It just amazes me that not only in Russia, but outside, governments, companies and even charity organisations feel the need to economise year after year, to assure the bank balance looks larger and profit margins greater. This is rampant capitalism on cocaine. Why do we find companies shedding jobs, frowning on pension schemes, cutting down on holiday time, bringing in the cheapest outsourced companies to do the manual tasks, even reducing travel allowances for people to get to work? Simply to bring greater profits to the shareholders, owners and directors: the Pharoahs of the 21st century.
I don't put the culpability at the door of the former Russian leader, but he helped make it acceptable in Russia. What has this led to in Europe? We dare not criticise Russia, or our gas will be switched off, Ukraine-style. So EU leaders pussyfoot around pretending to be great friends of Russia whilst behind their backs looking for ways out of the deal.
And what of the future? Russia is on the frontiers of the EU, a possible candidate. If it applies one day, we can't treat them like we do to Turkey. Russia won't accept being handled as second-class: we'd have to let them in. Imagine the power it would have. We might as well change the name from European Union to Russian Union. Or why don't we just go back to calling it the Soviet Union? The great dream of Stalin and Lenin will finally be realised: if invasion doesn't work, just buy the place.
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